Gen. Omar Bradley Bradley was born in Clark, Mo., on Feb 12, 1893. He moved with his family 15 years later to Moberly, Mo., where he met the girl he eventually married, Mary Quayle. He graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1915. During World War I, Bradley rose to the temporary rank of major while serving with the 14th Infantry Regiment. At the opening of World War II he was commandant of the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Ga., and later commanded the 82nd (two months after Pearl Harbor ) and 28th infantry divisions. After being placed at the head of the 2nd Corps for the North African campaign, under General George S. Patton, he captured Bizerte, Tunisia, in May 1943. (One of his first important decisions was to advise Eisenhower to relieve Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall from command of II Corps, whose troops had demonstrated a particularly poor performance at Kasserine. Eisenhower had been reluctant to take such drastic action despite the recommendations of key subordinates, but he finally acted after consulting with Bradley. When Eisenhower assigned George Patton to replace Fredendall, he also asked Bradley to become the corps deputy commanding general. Bradley then succeeded to command of the corps on 15 April when Patton left to continue his interrupted planning for landings on Sicily. ) This victory contributed directly to the fall of Tunisia and the surrender of more than 250,000 Axis troops. The fighting in North Africa was over, and the U.S. Army, as Bradley put it, had "learned to crawl, to walk—then run." Bradley then led his forces in the Sicilian invasion, which was successfully concluded in August. Later in 1943 Bradley was transferred to Great Britain, where he was given command of the U.S. 1st Army in 1944. Placed temporarily under the command of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, he took part in planning the invasion of France. In June 1944 he joined his troops in the assault on the Normandy beaches and in the initial battles inland. At the beginning of August he was elevated to command of the U.S. 12th Army Group. Under his leadership the 1st, 3rd, 9th, and 15th armies, the largest force ever placed under an American group commander( by the spring of 1945 12th Army Group contained 4 field armies, 12 corps, 48 divisions, and more than 1,300,000 men, the largest exclusively American field command in U.S. history. ), successfully carried on operations in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, and Czechoslovakia until the end of European hostilities.field command in U.S. history. From the time of the TORCH landings in North Africa through the end of the war, Bradley was indispensable to Eisenhower, who greatly valued his perennial calm, understated professionalism, and sound advice. Since 1943 he had been intimately involved in every crucial decision that determined the outcome of the war in Europe. The Supreme Commander saw Bradley as "the master tactician of our forces," and at the end of the war he predicted that Bradley would eventually be recognized as "America's foremost battle leader." After the German surrender, Bradley returned to the United States to serve as administrator of veterans' affairs (1945-47) and chief of staff of the Army (1948-49). (Months before the end of the war in Europe, Bradley had asked General Marshall to keep him in mind for an eventual command in the Pacific. Once Germany capitulated, it became evident that General Douglas MacArthur did not require another army group commander for his planned assault on the Japanese home islands. Bradley was still in Germany when news of the Japanese surrender reached him. President Harry S. Truman, it turned out, had other plans for Bradley. On 15 August 1945, he appointed him to direct the Veterans Administration (VA). ) He was well liked by both officers and enlisted men and, after the unification of the armed forces, was chosen in 1949 as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While at that post he was promoted (1950) to general of the Army. After retiring from the Army in 1953, Bradley was active in private enterprise. In 1951 he published his reminiscences, A Soldier's Story. A General's Life (with Clay Blair) was published in 1983. -------------------- On Bradley´s character: A mildmannered man with a high-pitched voice, General Bradley created the impression less of a soldier than of a teacher, which he actually was during much of his early career in the Army (at the U. S. Military Academy and the Infantry School). Yet he earned a reputation as an eminent tactician and as a "soldier's soldier, a general with whom lower ranks could readily identify. His understated personal style of command left newsmen with little to write about, especially when they compared him to the more flamboyant among the Allied commanders, but his reputation as a fighter was secure among his peers and particularly with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, who considered him indispensable http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/bradley/bradley.htm http://www.shriners.bc.ca/shriners/bradley.shtml
Great info on Omar Nelson Bradley. He was one of our best in ww2. In North Africa--he was transferred to Gen Patton's command--at Patton's request. After the slapping incidents, and in a role reversal, Patton served under Bradley. It's a good thing they were good friends.
Thanx Carl! I just tried to cover his career+ some of his personality. There´s more in the sources I put along if you like to know about his childhood etc. I think it´s good to know about these people, not just their military record.
A great American general indeed. Although some people think he was too cautious... he was the American Monty. Good but conservative.
